There aren’t more popular players at Aston Villa than Emi Martinez.
On Monday evening, Martinez won the Yashin Trophy for the second year running to further signify that he is the best in the world.
Week after week, you will hear the Holte End sing ‘Emi Martinez, the world’s number one’ and that isn’t going to stop anytime soon.
Martinez has been a key reason why Villa reached the Champions League and now he is aiming for that much-craved trophy.
But the 32-year-old’s biggest success has come on the world stage when he played one of the most important roles in Argentina becoming champions of the world.
That World Cup triumph in Qatar has made Martinez who he is today and he will be forever remembered for those penalty heroics regardless of what he does in his career from now on.
But in order to reach those levels, you need some serious skills and a mindset like no other.
Jhon Duran labels Emi Martinez as ‘crazy’
The people who know him better than anyone else are his Aston Villa teammates and coaches because they get to see him week in and week out.
After Martinez picked up the award for the best goalkeeper at the 2024 Ballon d’Or, his club teammates were asked to describe him.
As posted by Villa on Twitter, they all lined up to give their answers and fans would agree with what they had to say:
Jhon Duran called Martinez ‘crazy’, whilst Matty Cash added ‘he’s a beast, isn’t he? The world’s number one, though, Come on’.
Tyrone Mings listening on liked Cash’s answer and said ‘that’s a good one’ before describing him as ‘confident’ and Jacob Ramsey called him a ‘winner’.
Boubacar Kamara was more simple and called him ‘solid’, with Ian Maatsen saying he is ‘number one’ and Kosta Nedeljkovic said he is a ‘legend’.
Leon Bailey labelled the shot-stopper as ‘strong’, with Diego Carlos adding that he is ‘the best’ and fellow goalkeeper Joe Gauci used the word ‘spectacular’.
Captain John McGinn was his typical self and he just said ‘I dunno. There are hundreds of words’, before calling him ‘good’.
What Lionel Messi said about Martinez?
From the best goalkeeper in the world to perhaps the greatest player of all time – Lionel Messi.
The now-Inter Miami star watched Martinez produce heroics after heroics at the Copa America (twice) and the World Cup.
And then, when Martinez picked up the Yashin Trophy for the second time, he got a message, via Instagram, from Messi himself.
Messi wrote via his Instagram story: “Congratulations to all the winners and nominees of the Ballon d’Or 2024.
“Especially to Dibu (what a great, another award for best goalkeeper in the world!),” added with a picture of the Villa man collecting his award.
